Businesses often conduct business over the telephone, by mail, or over a computer network such as the Internet. Such sales are often charged to credit cards, paid cash-on-delivery ("C.O.D."), or a bill is mailed to the customer. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,336,870. However, not all potential customers have credit cards or they prefer not to charge new purchases to their credit cards. Likewise, C.O.D. and mailed bills may not be a desirable option.
Some businesses offer billing directly to the customer's telephone bill. However, currently these are limited to telephone related business such as 900 telephone calls.
A recognized problem, therefore, is the inability of businesses to authentic customer telephone information and place charges directly on customer's telephone bills.